And my favorite Democrat, Jilly, I want you to know that Beau and Hunt and Ashley and I — we’re so incredibly proud of you, kid. You know, we admire the way — they way that when every single solitary young person — and they’re not all young — walk into your classroom, you not only teach them, you give them confidence.

You give me confidence. And the passion — the passion she brings to trying to ease the burden on the families of our warriers. Jilly, they know you understand them. And that makes a gigantic difference. (Cheers, applause.)

And folks, I tell you what, it was worth the trip to hear my wife say what I’ve never heard her say before: She’s always loved me. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) If that’s the case, why in the heck did it take five times of asking you? And that’s true. Five times. I don’t know what I would have done, kiddo, had you on that fifth time said no. (Laughter.) I love you. You’re the love of my life and the life of my love. (Cheers, applause.)

We’ve got three incredible kids. And Beau, I want to thank you for putting my name in nomination to be vice president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.) I accept. (Sustained cheers, applause.) I accept. With great honor and pleasure, I accept. Thank you. Thank you, my fellow Democrats. (Cheers, applause.)

Thank you, my fellow Democrats. (Cheers, applause.)

And I say to my fellow Americans: My fellow Americans, four years ago a battered nation turned away from the failed policies of the past and turned to a leader who they knew would lift our nation out of the crisis — a journey — a journey we haven’t finished yet. We know we still have more to do. But today I say to my fellow citizens: In the face of the deepest economic crisis in our lifetime, this generation of Americans has proven itself as worthy as any generation before us. (Cheers, applause.) For we present that same grit, that same determination, that same courage that has always defined what it means to be an American, has always defined all of you. Together we’re on a mission. We’re on a mission to move this nation forward from doubt and downturn to promise and prosperity, a mission I guarantee you we will complete — (cheers, applause) — a mission we will complete.

PBS NewsHour/YouTube
Vice President Joe Biden addresses the Democratic National Convention, from PBS NewsHour.
Folks, tonight what I really want to do is tell you about my friend Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) No one could tell it as well or as eloquently as Michelle — as you did last night, Michelle — Monday night. (Cheers, applause.) But I know him, to state the obvious, from a different perspective.

I know him, and I want to show you — I want to show you the character of a leader who had what it took when the American people literally stood on the brink of a new depression, a leader who has what it takes to lead us over the next four years to a future as great as our people. I want to take you inside the White House to see the president as I see him every day, because I don’t see him in soundbites. I walk 30 paces down the hall into the Oval Office, and I see him, I watch him in action.

Four years ago the middle class was already losing ground, and then the bottom fell out. The financial crisis hit like a sledgehammer on all the people I grew up with. You remember the headlines. You saw some of them in the previews. Highlight: Highest job losses in 60 years. Headlines: Economy on the brink; markets plummet worldwide.

From the very moment President Obama sat behind the desk, resolute, in the Oval Office, he knew — he knew he had not only to restore the confidence of a nation, but he had to restore the confidence of the whole world. (Cheers, applause.) And he also knew — he also knew that one, one false move could bring a run on the banks or a credit collapse to put another several million people out of work. America and the world needed a strong president with a steady hand and with the judgment and vision to see us through.

Day after day, night after night I sat beside him as he made one gutsy decision after the other to stop the slide and reverse it. I watched him. (Applause.) I watched him stand up. I watched him stand up to intense pressure and stare down enormous, enormous challenges, the consequences of which were awesome.

But most of all, I got to see firsthand what drove this man: his profound concern for the average American. He knew — he knew that no matter how tough the decisions he had to make were in that Oval Office, he knew that families all over America sitting at their kitchen tables were literally making decisions for their family that were equally as consequential.

You know, Barack and I, we’ve been through a lot together these four years, and we learned about one another, a lot about one another. And one of the things I learned about Barack is the enormity of his heart. And I think he learned about me the depth of my loyalty to him. (Cheers, applause.)

And there’s another thing, another thing that has bound us together these past four years. We had a pretty good idea what all those families, all you Americans in trouble were going through, in part because our own families had gone through similar struggles.

Barack as a young man had to sit at the end of his mother’s hospital bed and watch her fight with her insurance company at the very same time she was fighting for her life.

When I was a young kid in third grade, I remember my dad coming up the stairs in my grandpop’s house where we were living, sitting at the end of my bed, and saying, Joey, I’m going to have to leave for a while. Gone — go down to Wilmington, Delaware, with Uncle Franks. They’re good jobs down there, honey. And in a little while — a little while, I’ll be able to send for you and mom and Jimmy and Val, and everything’s going to be fine.

For the rest of our life, my sister and my brothers, for the rest of our life, dad never failed to remind us that a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about — (applause) — it’s about your dignity. (Cheers, applause.) It’s about respect. It’s about your place in the community. It’s about being able to look your child in the eye and say, honey, it’s going to be OK, and mean it, and know it’s true. (Cheers, applause.)

When Barack and I — when Barack and I were growing up, there was an implicit understanding in America that if you took responsibility, you’d get a fair shot at a better life. And the values — the values behind that bargain were the values that shaped both of us, and many, many of you. And today those same values are Barack’s guiding star. Folks, I’ve watched him. He has never wavered.

He never, never backs down. He always steps up, and he always asks in every one of those critical meetings the same fundamental question: How is this going to affect the average American? How is this going to affect people’s lives? (Cheers, applause.) That’s what’s inside this man. That’s what makes him tick. That’s who he is.

And folks, because of the decisions he has made, and the incredible strength of the American people, America has turned a corner. The worst job loss since the Great Depression, we’ve since created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 25 — 29 months. (Cheers, applause.)

Look, folks. President Obama and Governor Romney, they’re both — they’re both loving husbands. They’re both devoted fathers. But let’s be straight. They bring a vastly different vision and a vastly different values set to the job. (Applause.)

And tonight — tonight, although you’ve heard people talk about it, I want to talk about two things from a slightly different perspective, from my perspective. I’d like to focus on two crises and show you — show you the character of leadership that each man will bring to this job, because as I said, I’ve had a ringside seat. The first of these a lot’s been talked about.

But the first story I want to talk to you about is the rescue of the automobile industry. And let me tell you — let me tell you — from this man’s ringside seat, let me tell you about how Barack Obama saved more than a million American jobs. In the first — in the first days, literally the first days that we took office, General Motors and Chrysler were literally on the verge of liquidation. If the president didn’t act, if he didn’t act immediately, there wouldn’t be any industry left to save.

So we sat hour after hour in the Oval Office. Michelle remembers how it must have — what he must have thought when she — he came back upstairs. We sat. We sat hour after hour. We listened to senators, congressmen, outside advisers, even some of our own adviser (sic), and we listened to them to say some of the following things. They said, well, we shouldn’t step up. The risk — the risk was too high. The outcome was too uncertain.

And the president, he patiently sat there and he listened. But he didn’t see it the way they did. He understood something they didn’t get. And one of the reasons I love him, he understood that this wasn’t just about cars. It was about the people who built and made those cars — (cheers, applause) — and about the America those people build. (Cheers, applause.)

In those meetings — (cheers, applause) — in those meetings — in those meetings, I often thought about my dad. My dad was an automobile man. He would have been one of those guys all the way down the line, not on the factory floor, not along the supply chain, but one of those guys who were selling American cars to American people.

I thought about — I thought about what this crisis would have meant for the mechanics and the secretaries and the salespeople who my dad managed for over 35 years. And I know for certain — I know for certain that my dad, were he here today, he’d be fighting like heck for the president, because the president fought to save the jobs of those people my dad cared so much about. (Applause.) Ladies and gentlemen, my dad — (applause) — my dad respected Barack Obama — would have respected Barack Obama, had he been around, for having had the guts to stand up for the automobile industry when so many others just were prepared to walk away.

You know, when I look back — (applause) — when I look back now, when I look back on the president’s decision, I think of another son of another automobile man, Mitt Romney. Mitt — no, no — Mitt Romney — Mitt Romney grew up in Detroit. My dad managed, his dad owned — well, his dad ran an entire automobile company, American Motors. Yes, what I don’t understand is in spite of that, he was willing to let the — Detroit go bankrupt.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Boo!

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: No, don’t. I don’t think he’s a bad guy. No, no. I don’t think he’s a bad guy. I’m sure he grew up loving cars as much as I did. But what I don’t understand, what I don’t think he understood, I don’t think he understood that saving the automobile worker, saving the industry, what it meant to all of America, not just autoworkers. I think he saw it the Bain way. Now, I mean this sincerely. I think he saw it in terms of balance sheets and write-offs.

Folks, the Bain way may bring your firm the highest profits. But it’s not the way to lead our country from the highest office. (Extended cheers, applause.)

When things — when things — when things hung in the balance — when things hung in the balance — I mean, literally hung in the balance — the president understood this was about a lot more than the automobile industry. This was about restoring America’s pride. He understood — he understood in his gut what it would mean to leave a million people without hope or work if he didn’t act. And he also knew — he also knew — he intuitively understood the message it would have sent around the world if the United States gave up on an industry that helped put America on the map in the first place. (Cheers, applause.) Conviction, resolve, Barack Obama — that’s what saved the automobile industry. (Cheers, applause.) Conviction, resolve, Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)

Look, you heard my friend John Kerry. This president — this president has shown the same resolve, the same steady hand in his role as commander in chief. (Applause.) Look — which brings me to the next illustration I want to tell you about, the next crisis he had to face. In 2008 — 2008, before he was president — Barack Obama made a promise to the American people.

He said, if I have bin — if we have bin Laden in our sights, we will — we will take him out. (Cheers, applause.)

He went on to say — he went on to say, that has to be our biggest national security priority.

Look, Barack understood that the search for bin Laden was about a lot more than taking a monstrous leader off the battlefield. It was about so much more than that. It was about righting an unspeakable wrong. It was about — literally, it was about — it was about healing an unbearable wound, a nearly unbearable wound in America’s heart.

And he also knew — he also knew the message we had to send around the world: If you attack innocent Americans, we will follow you to the end of the earth. (Cheers, applause.)

Look —

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Most of all — most of all, President Obama had an unyielding faith in the capacity and the capability of our special forces, literally the finest warriors in the history of the world. (Cheers, applause.) The finest warriors in the history of the world.

So we sat. (Cheers, applause.) We sat originally — only five of us — we sat in the Situation Room beginning in the fall of the year before. We listened, we talked, we heard, and he listened to the risks and reservations about the raid. He asked again the tough questions. He listened to the doubts that were expressed.

But when Admiral McRaven looked him in the eye and said, sir, we can get this job done, I sat next to him and looked at your husband, and I knew at that moment he had made his decision. And his response was decisive. He said, do it — and justice was done! (Cheers, applause.)

Folks, folks —

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Folks, Governor Romney didn’t see things that way. When he was asked about bin Laden in 2007, here’s what he said. He said, it’s not worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars just to catch one person. (Boos.)

But he was wrong. He was wrong. Because if you understood that America’s heart had to be healed, you would have done exactly what the president did and you would move heaven and earth to hunt him down and to bring him to justice. (Cheers, applause.)

Look, four years ago — four years ago — the only thing missing at this convention this year is my mom. Four years ago my mom was still with us, sitting up in the stadium in Denver. I quoted her.

(Cheers, applause.) I quoted her, one of her favorite expressions. She used to say to all her children — she said, Joey, bravery resides in every heart, and the time will come when it must be summoned.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you what I think you already know. But I watch it up close. Bravery resides in the heart of Barack Obama, and time and time again I witnessed him summon it. (Applause.) This man has courage in his soul, compassion in his heart and a spine of steel. (Cheers, applause.) And — and because — because of all the actions he took, because of the calls he made, because of the determination of American workers and the unparalleled bravery of our special forces, we can now proudly say what you’ve heard me say the last six months: Osama bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive. (Cheers, applause.) That’s right. One man.

Folks, we know — we know we have more work to do. We know we’re not there yet. But not a day has gone by in the last four years when I haven’t been grateful as an American that Barack Obama is our president because he always has the courage to make the tough decisions. (Cheers, applause.)

Speaking of tough decisions — speaking of tough calls — (chuckles) — last week we heard at the Republican convention — we heard our opponents — we heard them pledge that they too — they too heard the courage to make the tough calls.

That’s what they said. (Laughter.)

But folks, in case you didn’t notice — (laughter) — and I say to my fellow Americans, in case you didn’t notice, they didn’t have the courage to tell you what calls they’d make. (Laughter, applause.) They never mentioned any of that. (Applause.)

They — Mrs. Robinson, you — you watched from home, I guess, from the White House. You heard them talk so much about how they cared so much about Medicare, how much they wanted to preserve it. That’s what they told you.

But let’s look at what they didn’t tell you. What they didn’t tell you is that the plan they have already put down on paper would immediately cut benefits for more than 30 million seniors already on Medicare. What they didn’t tell you — what they didn’t tell you is the plan they’re proposing would cause Medicare to go bankrupt by 2016. And what they really didn’t tell you is they — if you want to know — if you want to know — they’re not for preserving Medicare at all. They’re for a new plan. It’s called “Vouchercare.” (Boos.)

Look, folks. That’s not courage. That’s not even truthful. That’s not even truthful. In Tampa, they talk with great urgency about the nation’s debt and the need to act, to act now. But not once, not one single time, did they tell you that they rejected every plan put forward by us, by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission they referenced — (applause) — or by any other respected group to reduce the national debt.

They are not for any of them. Why? Because they’re not prepared to do anything about the debt if it contained even one dollar — I’m not exaggerating — even one dollar or one cent in new taxes for millionaires.

Folks, that’s not courage and that’s not fair. (Applause.)

Look — look. In a sense, this can be reduced to a single notion. The two men seeking to lead this country over the next four years, as I said at the outset, have fundamentally different visions and a completely different value set.

Governor Romney believes in this global economy — it doesn’t matter much where American companies invest and put their money or where they create jobs. As a matter of fact, in his budget proposal, in his tax proposal, he calls for a new tax. It’s called a territorial tax, which the experts have looked at, and they acknowledge it will create 800,000 new jobs — all of them overseas, all of them. (Boos.)

And what I’ve found — what I found fascinating, the most fascinating thing I found last week was when Governor Romney said that as president, he would take a jobs tour. Well, with his support for outsourcing, it’s going to have to be a foreign trip. (Cheers, applause.) It will.

Look, President Obama knows that creating jobs in America, keeping jobs in America, bringing jobs back to America is what the president’s job was all about.

That’s what presidents do, or at least supposed to do. (Applause.)

Folks, Governor Romney believes it’s OK to raise taxes on middle classes by $2,000 in order to pay for another — literally another trillion-dollar tax cut for the very wealthy. President Obama knows that there’s nothing decent or fair about asking people with more to do less and with less to do more. (Scattered cheers.)

Governor Romney believes — he believes that kids, kids like our “DREAMers” — those immigrant children — (cheers, applause) — those immigrant children who were brought to America’s shores through no fault of their own — he thinks they’re a drag on the American economy. President Obama believes that even though those “DREAMers,” those kids, didn’t choose to come here, they have chosen to do right by America. And it’s time for us to do right by them. (Extended cheers, applause.)

Governor Romney — Governor Romney — Governor Romney — Governor Romney looks at the notion of equal pay in terms of a company’s bottom line. President Obama — he knows that making sure our daughters get the same pay for the same jobs as our son is every father’s bottom line. (Cheers, applause.)

Look, I kind of expected all that from him. But one thing truly perplexed me at their convention. The thing that perplexed me most was this idea they kept talking about about the culture of dependency. They seem to think you create a culture of dependency when you provide a bright, young, qualified kid from a working-class family a loan to get to college or when you provide a job training program in a new industry for a dad who lost his job because it was outsourced.

Folks — folks, that’s not how we look at it. That’s not how America’s ever looked at it. (Applause.) What he doesn’t understand is all these men and women are looking for is a chance, just a chance to acquire the skills to be able to provide for their families so they can once again hold their heads high and lead independent lives with dignity. That’s all they’re looking for. (Cheers, applause.)

Look — and it literally amazes me they don’t understand that. You know, I told you the outset the choice is stark, two different visions, two different value sets. But at its core, the difference is able to reduced (sic) to be a fundamental difference. You see, you, we, most Americans have incredible faith in the decency and hard work of the American people. And we know what has made this country. It’s the American people. (Cheers, applause.)

As I mentioned at the outset, four years ago we were hit hard. You saw — you saw your retirement accounts drain, the equity in your homes vanish, jobs lost around the line. But what did you do as Americans? What you’ve always done. You didn’t lose faith. You fought back. You didn’t give up; you got up. (Cheers, applause.) You’re the ones, the American people, you’re the ones. You’re the reason why we are still better-positioned than any country in the world to lead the 21st century. (Cheers, applause.) You never quit on America. And you deserve a president who will never quit on you. (Cheers, applause.)

Folks, there’s one more thing, one more thing our Republican opponents are just dead wrong about. America is not in decline. America is not in decline. (Applause.) I’ve got news for Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan: Gentlemen, never ever — it never makes sense, it’s never been a good bet to bet against the American people. (Cheers, applause.) Never!

My fellow Americans, America is coming back. And we’re not going back. And we have no intention of downsizing the American dream. (Extended cheers, applause.) Never. Never a good bet.

Ladies and gentlemen, in a moment — in a moment we’re going to hear from a man whose whole life is a testament to the power of that dream and whose presidency is the best hope to secure that dream for our children. For you see — you see, we see a future — we really honest to God do — we see a future where everyone, rich and poor, does their part and has a part, a future where we depend more on clean energy from home and less on oil from abroad, a future where we’re number one in the world again in college graduation, a future where we promote the private sector, not the privileged sector — (cheers, applause) — and a future — and a future where women once again control their own choices, their destiny and their own health care. (Cheers, applause.)

And ladies and gentlemen, Barack and I see a future — it’s in our DNA — where no one, no one is forced to live in the shadows of intolerance. (Cheers, applause.)

Folks, we see a future where American — where America leads not only by the power of our — the example of our power, but by the power of example, where we bring our troops home from Afghanistan just as we proudly did from Iraq — (cheers, applause) — a future — a future where we fulfill the only truly sacred obligation we have as a nation. The only truly sacred obligation we have is to prepare those who we send to war and care for them when they come home from war.

And tonight — (applause) — and tonight — tonight I want to acknowledge — I want to acknowledge, as we should every night, the incredible debt we owe to the families of those 6,473 fallen angels and those 49,746 wounded, thousands critically, thousands who will need our help for the rest of their lives.

Folks, we never — we must never, ever forget their sacrifice and always keep them in our care and in our prayers.

My fellow Americans, we now — we now — and we now find ourselves at the hinge of history. And the direction we turn is not figuratively, is literally in your hands. It has been a truly great honor to serve you and to serve with Barack, who has always stood up with you for the past four years. I’ve seen him tested. I know his strength, his command, his faith. And I also know the incredible confidence he has in all of you. I know this man. Yes, the work of recovery is not yet — not yet complete. But we are on our way. The journey of hope is not yet finished, but we are on our way. (Applause.) And the cause of change is not fully accomplished, but we are on our way. (Cheers, applause.)

So I say to you tonight with absolute confidence, America’s best days are ahead, and yes, we are on our way. (Cheers, applause.) And in light — in light of that horizon, for the values that define us, for the ideals that inspire us, there is only one choice. That choice is to move forward, boldly forward, and finish the job and re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)

Former President William J. Clinton delivers remarks at the Democratic National Convention on September 5, 2012 (full transcript):
(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, Mr. Mayor, fellow Democrats, we are here to nominate a president…

(APPLAUSE)

… and I’ve got one in mind.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty. I want to nominate a man who ran for president to change the course of an already weak economy and then, just six weeks before his election, saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the Great Depression, a man who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the while that no matter — no matter how many jobs that he saved or created, there’d still be millions more waiting, worried about feeding their own kids, trying to keep their hopes alive.

I want to nominate a man who’s cool on the outside…

(APPLAUSE)

… but who burns for America on the inside.

(APPLAUSE)

I want — I want a man who believes with no doubt that we can build a new American dream economy, driven by innovation and creativity, by education and, yes, by cooperation.

And by the way, after last night, I want a man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

You know…

(APPLAUSE)

I — I…

(APPLAUSE)

I want — I want Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. And…

(APPLAUSE)

… I proudly nominate him to be the standard bearer of the Democratic Party.

(APPLAUSE) Now, folks, in Tampa a few days ago, we heard a lot of talk…

(LAUGHTER)

… all about how the president and the Democrats don’t really believe in free enterprise and individual initiative, how we want everybody to be dependent on the government, how bad we are for the economy. This Republican narrative, this alternative universe says that…

(APPLAUSE)

… every one of us in this room who amounts to anything, we’re all completely self-made. One of the greatest chairmen the Democratic Party ever had, Bob Strauss, used to say that every politician wants every voter to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself.

(LAUGHTER)

But, as Strauss then admitted, it ain’t so.

(LAUGHTER)

We Democrats, we think the country works better with a strong middle class, with real opportunities for poor folks to work their way into it, with a relentless focus on the future, with business and government actually working together to promote growth and broadly shared prosperity. You see, we believe that “We’re all in this together” is a far better philosophy than “You’re on your own.”

(APPLAUSE)

So who’s right? Well, since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats 24. In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private- sector jobs. So what’s the job score? Republicans: twenty-four million. Democrats: forty-two.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, there’s — there’s a reason for this. It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics. Why? Because poverty, discrimination, and ignorance restrict growth.

(APPLAUSE)

When you stifle human potential, when you don’t invest in new ideas, it doesn’t just cut off the people who are affected. It hurts us all.

(APPLAUSE)

We know that investments in education and infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase growth. They increase good jobs, and they create new wealth for all the rest of us.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, there’s something I’ve noticed lately. You probably have, too. And it’s this. Maybe just because I grew up in a different time, but though I often disagree with Republicans, I actually never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate our president and a lot of other Democrats.

(APPLAUSE)

I — that — that would be impossible for me, because President Eisenhower sent federal troops to my home state to integrate Little Rock Central High School. President Eisenhower built the interstate highway system. When I was a governor, I worked with President Reagan in his White House on the first round of welfare reform and with President George H.W. Bush on national education goals.

(APPLAUSE)

I’m actually very grateful to — if you saw from the film what I do today, I have to be grateful — and you should be, too — that President George W. Bush supported PEPFAR. It saved the lives of millions of people in poor countries. And…

(APPLAUSE)

… I have been honored to work with both Presidents Bush on natural disasters in the aftermath of the South Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the horrible earthquake in Haiti. Through my foundation both in America and around the world, I’m working all the time with Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Sometimes I couldn’t tell you for the life who I’m working with because we focus on solving problems and seizing opportunities and not fighting all the time.

(APPLAUSE)

And — so here’s what I want to say to you. And here’s what I want the people at home to think about. When times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good, but what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. What works in the real world is cooperation.

(APPLAUSE)

What works in the real world is cooperation, business and government, foundations and universities. Ask the mayors who are here.

(APPLAUSE)

Los Angeles is getting green and Chicago is getting an infrastructure bank because Republicans and Democrats are working together to get it.

(APPLAUSE)

They didn’t check their brains at the door. They didn’t stop disagreeing. But their purpose was to get something done.

Now, why is this true? Why does cooperation work better than constant conflict? Because nobody’s right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day.

(APPLAUSE)

And every one of us — every one of us and every one of them, we’re compelled to spend our fleeting lives between those two extremes, knowing we’re never going to be right all the time, and hopefully we’re right more than twice a day.

(LAUGHTER)

Unfortunately, the faction that now dominates the Republican Party doesn’t see it that way. They think government is always the enemy, they’re always right, and compromise is weakness. Just in the last couple of elections, they defeated two distinguished Republican senators because they dared to cooperate with Democrats on issues important to the future of the country, even national security.

They beat a Republican congressman with almost 100 percent voting record on every conservative score because he said he realized he did not have to hate the president to disagree with him. Boy, that was a non-starter, and they threw him out.

(LAUGHTER)

One of the main reasons we ought to re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to constructive cooperation.

(APPLAUSE)

Look at his record. Look at his record. Look at his record. He appointed Republican secretaries of defense, the Army, and transportation. He appointed a vice president who ran against him in 2008. And he trusted that vice president to oversee the successful end of the war in Iraq and the implementation of the Recovery Act.

(APPLAUSE)

And Joe Biden — Joe Biden did a great job with both.

(APPLAUSE)

Now — now, he — President Obama — President Obama appointed several members of his cabinet, even though they supported Hillary in the primary. Heck, he even appointed Hillary.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, wait a minute. I am — I am very proud of her. I am proud of the job she and the national security team have done for America.

(APPLAUSE)

I am grateful that they have worked together to make it safer and stronger to build a world with more partners and fewer enemies. I’m grateful for the relationship of respect and partnership she and the president have enjoyed. And the signal that sends to the rest of the world, that democracy does not have a — have to be a blood sport, it can be an honorable enterprise that advances the public interest.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, besides the national security team, I am very grateful to the men and women who’ve served our country in uniform through these perilous times.

(APPLAUSE)

And I am especially grateful to Michelle Obama and to Jill Biden for supporting those military families while their loved ones were overseas…

(APPLAUSE)

… and for supporting our veterans when they came home, when they come home bearing the wounds of war or needing help to find education or jobs or housing. President Obama’s whole record on national security is a tribute to his strength, to his judgment, and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship. We need more of it in Washington, D.C.

(APPLAUSE)

We all know that he also tried to work with congressional Republicans on health care, debt reduction, and new jobs. And that didn’t work out so well.

(LAUGHTER)

But it could have been because, as the Senate Republican leader said, in a remarkable moment of candor, two full years before the election, their number-one priority was not to put America back to work. It was to put the president out of work.

(APPLAUSE)

(BOOING)

Well — wait a minute. Senator, I hate to break it to you, but we’re going to keep President Obama on the job.

(APPLAUSE)

Are you willing to work for it?

(APPLAUSE)

Wait a minute.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

CLINTON: In Tampa…

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

CLINTON: In Tampa — in Tampa, did y’all watch their convention? I did.

(LAUGHTER)

In Tampa, the Republican argument against the president’s re- election was actually pretty simple, pretty snappy. It went something like this: “We left him a total mess. He hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.”

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Now — but — but they did it well. They looked good, they sounded good. They convinced me…

(LAUGHTER)

… that they all love their families and their children, and we’re grateful they’ve been born in America, and all — really, I’m not being — they did.

(LAUGHTER)

And this is important. They convinced me they were honorable people who believe what they’ve said and they’re going to keep every commitment they’ve made. We’ve just got to make sure the American people know what those commitments are.

(APPLAUSE)

Because — because in order to look like an acceptable, reasonable, moderate alternative to President Obama, they just didn’t say very much about the ideas they’ve offered over the last two years. They couldn’t, because they want to go back to the same, old policies that got us in trouble in the first place.

They want to cut taxes for high-income Americans even more than President Bush did. They want to get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent another crash and prohibit federal bailouts. They want to actually increase defense spending over a decade $2 trillion more than the Pentagon has requested, without saying what they’ll spend it on. And they want to make enormous cuts in the rest of budget, especially programs that help the middle class and poor children. As another president once said, there they go again.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, I like…

(APPLAUSE)

I — I like the argument for President Obama’s re-election a lot better. Here it is. He inherited a deeply damaged economy. He put a floor under the crash. He began the long, hard road to recovery and laid the foundation for a modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good, new jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for innovators.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, are we where we want to be today? No. Is the president satisfied? Of course not. But are we better off than we were when he took office?

(APPLAUSE)

Listen to this. Listen to this. Everybody (inaudible)

(APPLAUSE)

Everybody (inaudible) when President Barack Obama took office, the economy was in freefall. It had just shrunk 9 full percent of GDP. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Are we doing better than that today?

AUDIENCE: Yes!

CLINTON: The answer is yes. Now, look. Here’s the challenge he faces and the challenge all of you who support him face. I get it. I know it. I’ve been there. A lot of Americans are still angry and frustrated about this economy. If you look at the numbers, you know employment is growing, banks are beginning to lend again, and in a lot of places, housing prices have even began to pick up.

But too many people do not feel it yet. I had this same thing happen in 1994 and early ‘95. We could see that the policies were working, that the economy was growing, but most people didn’t feel it yet. Thankfully, by 1996, the economy was roaring, everybody felt it, and we were halfway through the longest peacetime expansion in the history of the United States. But…

(APPLAUSE)

… the difference this time is purely in the circumstances. President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. Listen to me now. No president, no president — not me, not any of my predecessors — no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years.

(APPLAUSE)

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Now — but he has — he has laid the foundations for a new, modern, successful economy of shared prosperity. And if you will renew the president’s contract, you will feel it. You will feel it.

(APPLAUSE)

Folks, whether the American people believe what I just said or not may be the whole election. I just want you to know that I believe it. With all my heart, I believe it.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, why do I believe it? I’m fixing to tell you why. I believe it because President Obama’s approach embodies the values, the ideas, and the direction America has to take to build a 21st-century version of the American dream, a nation of shared opportunities, shared responsibilities, shared prosperity, a shared sense of community.

So let’s get back to the story. In 2010, as the president’s recovery program kicked in, the job losses stopped and things began to turn around. The Recovery Act saved or created millions of jobs and cut taxes — let me say this again — cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people.

(APPLAUSE)

And in the last 29 months, our economy has produced about 4.5 million private-sector jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

We could have done better, but last year the Republicans blocked the president’s job plan, costing the economy more than a million new jobs. So here’s another job score. President Obama: plus 4.5 million. Congressional Republicans: zero.

(APPLAUSE)

(APPLAUSE)

During this period — during this period, more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been created under President Obama. That’s the first time manufacturing jobs have increased since the 1990s.

(APPLAUSE)

And I’ll tell you something else. The auto industry restructuring worked. It saved…

(APPLAUSE)

It saved more than a million jobs, and not just at G.M., Chrysler, and their dealerships, but in auto parts manufacturing all over the country. That’s why even the automakers who weren’t part of the deal supported it. They needed to save those parts suppliers, too. Like I said, we’re all in this together.

(APPLAUSE)

So what’s happened? There are now 250,000 more people working in the auto industry than on the day the companies were restructured.

(APPLAUSE)

So — now, we all know that Governor Romney opposed the plan to save G.M. and Chrysler. So here’s another job score. Are you listening in Michigan and Ohio and across the country?

(APPLAUSE)

Here — here’s another job score. Obama: 250,000. Romney: zero.

AUDIENCE: Zero!

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Now, the agreement the administration made with the management, labor, and environmental groups to double car mileage, that was a good deal, too. It will cut your gas prices in half, your gas bill. No matter what the price is, if you double the mileage of your car, your bill will be half what it would have been. It will make us more energy independent. It will cut greenhouse gas emission. And according to several analyses, over the next 20 years, it will bring us another 500,000 good, new jobs into the American economy.

(APPLAUSE)

The president’s energy strategy, which he calls all-of-the-above, is helping, too. The boom in oil and gas production, combined with greater energy efficiency, has driven oil imports to a near 20-year low and natural gas production to an all-time high. And renewable energy production has doubled.

(APPLAUSE)

(APPLAUSE)

Of course, we need a lot more new jobs, but there are already more than 3 million jobs open and unfilled in America, mostly because the people who apply for them don’t yet have the required skills to do them. So even as we get Americans more jobs, we have to prepare more Americans for the new jobs that are actually going to be created. The old economy is not coming back. We’ve got to build a new one and educate people to do those jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

The president and his education secretary have supported community colleges and employers in working together to train people for jobs that are actually open in their communities. And even more important, after a decade in which exploding college costs have increased the dropout rate so much that the percentage of our young people with four-year college degrees has gone down so much that we have dropped to 16th in the world in the percentage of young people with college degrees.

So the president’s student loan reform is more important than ever. Here’s what it does. Here’s what it does. Here’s what it does.

(APPLAUSE)

You need to tell every voter where you live about this. It lowers the cost of federal student loans. And even more important, it gives students the right to repay those loans as a clear, fixed, low percentage of their income for up to 20 years.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, what does this mean? What does this mean? Think of it. It means no one will ever have to drop out of college again for fear they can’t repay their debt.

(APPLAUSE)

And it means — it means that if someone wants to take a job with a modest income, a teacher, a police officer, if they want to be a small-town doctor in a little rural area, they won’t have to turn those jobs down because they don’t pay enough to repay the debt. Their debt obligation will be determined by their salary. This will change the future for young Americans. (APPLAUSE)

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: I don’t know about you, but all these issues, I know we’re better off because President Obama made the decisions he did.

Now, that brings me to health care.

(APPLAUSE)

And the Republicans call it, derisively, “Obamacare.” They say it’s a government takeover, a disaster, and that if we’ll just elect them, they’ll repeal it. Well, are they right?

AUDIENCE: No!

CLINTON: Let’s take a look at what’s actually happened so far. First, individuals and businesses have already gotten more than $1 billion in refunds from insurance companies because the new law requires 80 percent to 85 percent of your premium to go to your health care, not profits or promotion. And…

(APPLAUSE)

The gains are even greater than that, because a bunch of insurance companies have applied to lower their rates to comply with the requirement.

Second, more than 3 million young people between 19 and 25 are insured for the first time because their parents’ policies can cover them.

(APPLAUSE)

Third, millions of seniors are receiving preventive care, all the way from breast cancer screenings to test for heart problems and scores of other things, and younger people are getting them, too.

Fourth, soon the insurance companies — not the government, the insurance companies — will have millions of new customers, many of them middle-class people with pre-existing conditions who never could get insurance before.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, finally, listen to this. For the last two years, after going up at three times the rate of inflation for a decade, for the last two years, health care costs have been under 4 percent in both years for the first time in 50 years.

(APPLAUSE)

(APPLAUSE)

So let me ask you something. Are we better off because President Obama fought for health care reform? You bet we are.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, there were two other attacks on the president in Tampa I think deserve an answer. First, both Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan attacked the president for allegedly “robbing Medicare” of $716 billion. That’s the same attack they leveled against the Congress in 2010, and they got a lot of votes on it. But it’s not true.

Look, here’s what really happened. You be the judge. Here’s what really happened. There were no cuts to benefits at all, none.

What the president did was to save money by taking the recommendations of a commission of professionals to cut unwarranted subsidies to providers and insurance companies that were not making people healthier and were not necessary to get the providers to provide the service.

(APPLAUSE)

And instead of raiding Medicare, he used the savings to close the donut hole in the Medicare drug program.

(APPLAUSE)

And — you all got to listen carefully to this. This is really important — and to add eight years to the life of the Medicare trust fund so it is solvent until 2024. So…

(APPLAUSE)

So President Obama and the Democrats didn’t weaken Medicare. They strengthened Medicare.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, when Congressman Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama’s Medicare savings as, quote, “the biggest, coldest power play,” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry…

(LAUGHTER)

… because that $716 billion is exactly to the dollar the same amount of Medicare savings that he has in his own budget!

(APPLAUSE)

You got to give one thing: It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Now — so — wait a minute.

(APPLAUSE)

Now you’re having a good time, but this is getting serious, and I want you to listen.

(LAUGHTER)

It’s important, because a lot of people believe this stuff. Now, at least on this issue, on this one issue, Governor Romney has been consistent. He…

(LAUGHTER)

He attacked President Obama, too, but he actually wants to repeal those savings and give the money back to the insurance company.

(BOOING)

He wants to go back to the old system, which means we’ll reopen the donut hole and force seniors to pay more for drugs, and we’ll reduce the life of the Medicare trust fund by eight full years.

(BOOING)

So if he’s elected, and if he does what he promised to do, Medicare will now go broke in 2016. Think about that. That means after all we won’t have to wait until their voucher program kicks in, in 2023, to see the end of Medicare as we know it. They’re going to do it to us sooner than we thought.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, folks, this is serious, because it gets worse. And you won’t be laughing when I finish telling you this. They also want to block grant Medicaid and cut it by a third over the coming 10 years. Of course, that’s going to really hurt a lot of poor kids.

But that’s not all. A lot of folks don’t know it, but nearly two-thirds of Medicaid is spent on nursing home care for Medicare seniors who are eligible for Medicaid.

(APPLAUSE)

(APPLAUSE)

It’s going to end Medicare as we know it. And a lot of that money is also spent to help people with disabilities, including…

(APPLAUSE)

… a lot of middle-class families whose kids have Down’s syndrome or autism or other severe conditions.

And, honestly, just think about it. If that happens, I don’t know what those families are going to do. So I know what I’m going to do: I’m going to do everything I can to see that it doesn’t happen. We can’t let it happen. We can’t.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, wait a minute. Let’s look…

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

CLINTON: Let’s look at the other big charge the Republicans made. It’s a real doozy.

(LAUGHTER)

They actually have charged and run ads saying that President Obama wants to weaken the work requirements in the welfare reform bill I signed that moved millions of people from welfare to work. Wait. You need to know, here’s what happened.

(LAUGHTER)

Nobody ever tells you what really happened. Here’s what happened. When some Republican governors asked if they could have waivers to try new ways to put people on welfare back to work, the Obama administration listened, because we all know it’s hard for even people with good work histories to get jobs today, so moving folks from welfare to work is a real challenge. And the administration agreed to give waivers to those governors and others only if they had a credible plan to increase employment by 20 percent and they could keep the waivers only if they did increase employment.

Now, did — did I make myself clear? The requirement was for more work, not less.

(APPLAUSE)

So this is personal to me. We moved millions of people off welfare. It was one of the reasons that, in the eight years I was president, we had 100 times as many people move out of poverty into the middle class than happened under the previous 12 years, 100 times as many. It’s a big deal.

(APPLAUSE)

But I am telling you, the claim that President Obama weakened welfare reform’s work requirement is just not true. But they keep on running ads claiming it.

You want to know why? Their campaign pollster said, “We are not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Now, finally I can say: That is true.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

I — I — I couldn’t have said it better myself.

(LAUGHTER)

And I hope you and every American within the sound of my voice remembers it every time they see one of those ads, and it turns into an ad to re-elect Barack Obama and keep the fundamental principles of personal empowerment and moving everybody who can get a job into work as soon as we can.

(APPLAUSE)

Now let’s talk about the debt. Today, interest rates are low, lower than the rate of inflation. People are practically paying us to borrow money, to hold their money for them. But it will become a big problem when the economy grows and interest rates start to rise. We’ve got to deal with this big long-term debt problem or it will deal with us. It’ll gobble up a bigger and bigger percentage of the federal budget we’d rather spend on education and health care and science and technology. It — we’ve got to deal with it.

Now, what has the president done? He has offered a reasonable plan of $4 trillion in debt reduction over a decade, with $2.5 trillion coming from — for every $2.5 trillion in spending cuts, he raises a dollar in new revenues, 2.5 to 1. And he has tight controls on future spending. That’s the kind of balanced approach proposed by the Simpson-Bowles commission, a bipartisan commission.

Now, I think this plan is way better than Governor Romney’s plan. First, the Romney plan fails the first test of fiscal responsibility: The numbers just don’t add up.

(LAUGHTER)

I mean, consider this. What would you do if you had this problem? Somebody says, “Oh, we’ve got a big debt problem. We’ve got to reduce the debt.” So what’s the first thing he says we’re going to do? “Well, to reduce the debt, we’re going to have another $5 trillion in tax cuts, heavily weighted to upper-income people. So we’ll make the debt hole bigger before we start to get out of it.”

Now, when you say, “What are you going to do about this $5 trillion you just added on?” They say, “Oh, we’ll make it up by eliminating loopholes in the tax code.” So then you ask, “Well, which loopholes? And how much?” You know what they say? “See me about that after the election.”

(LAUGHTER)

I’m not making it up. That’s their position. “See me about that after the election.”

Now, people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic.

(APPLAUSE)

If — arithmetic.

(APPLAUSE)

If they stay with this $5 trillion tax cut plan in a debt reduction plan, the arithmetic tells us, no matter what they say, one of three things is about to happen. One, assuming they try to do what they say they’ll do — get rid of — cover it by deductions, cutting those deductions — one, they’ll have to eliminate so many deductions, like the ones for home mortgages and charitable giving, that middle- class families will see their tax bills go up an average of $2,000, while anybody who makes $3 million or more will see their tax bill go down $250,000.

(BOOING) Or, two, they’ll have to cut so much spending that they’ll obliterate the budget for the national parks, for ensuring clean air, clean water, safe food, safe air travel. They’ll cut way back on Pell grants, college loans, early childhood education, child nutrition programs, all the programs that help to empower middle-class families and help poor kids. Oh, they’ll cut back on investments in roads and bridges and science and technology and biomedical research. That’s what they’ll do. They’ll hurt the middle class and the poor and put the future on hold to give tax cuts to upper-income people who’ve been getting it all along.

Or, three, in spite of all the rhetoric, they’ll just do what they’ve been doing for more than 30 years. They’ll go and cut the taxes way more than they cut spending, especially with that big defense increase, and they’ll just explode the debt and weaken the economy, and they’ll destroy the federal government’s ability to help you by letting interest gobble up all your tax payments.

Don’t you ever forget, when you hear them talking about this, that Republican economic policies quadrupled the national debt before I took office, in the 12 years before I took office…

(APPLAUSE)

… and doubled the debt in the eight years after I left, because it defied arithmetic.

(LAUGHTER)

It was a highly inconvenient thing for them in our debates that I was just a country boy from Arkansas and I came from a place where people still thought two and two was four.

(APPLAUSE)

It’s arithmetic. We simply cannot afford to give the reins of government to someone who will double-down on trickle-down.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, think about this. President Obama…

(APPLAUSE)

President Obama’s plan cuts the debt, honors our values, brightens the future of our children, our families, and our nation. It’s a heck of a lot better. It passes the arithmetic test and, far more important, it passes the values test.

(APPLAUSE)

My fellow Americans, all of us in this grand hall and everybody watching at home, when we vote in this election, we’ll be deciding what kind of country we want to live in. If you want a winner-take- all, you’re-on-your-own society, you should support the Republican ticket. But if you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility, a we’re-all-in-this-together society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

(APPLAUSE)

If you…

(APPLAUSE)

If you want — if you want America — if you want every American to vote and you think it is wrong to change voting procedures…

(APPLAUSE)

… just — just to reduce the turnout of younger, poorer, minority, and disabled voters, you should support Barack Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

And if you think — if you think the president was right to open the doors of American opportunity to all those young immigrants brought here when they were young so they can serve in the military or go to college, you must vote for Barack Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

If — if you want a future of shared prosperity, where the middle class is growing and poverty’s declining, where the American dream is really alive and well again, and where the United States maintains its leadership as a force for peace and justice and prosperity in this highly competitive world, you have to vote for Barack Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

Look, I love our country so much. And I know we’re coming back. For more than 200 years, through every crisis, we’ve always come back. People have predicted our demise ever since George Washington was criticized for being a mediocre surveyor with a bad set of wooden, false teeth. And so far every single person that’s bet against America has lost money, because we always come back.

(APPLAUSE)

We’ve come through every fire a little stronger and a little better. And we do it because, in the end, we decide to champion the cause for which our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor, the cause of forming a more perfect union.

(APPLAUSE)

My fellow Americans, if that is what you want, if that is what you believe, you must vote and you must re-elect President Barack Obama.

This is what MD Gov. Martin O’Malley WISHES his speech had been- a fantastic home run by Patrick. Give it a look.

“Good evening, Democrats! Are you fired up? Are you ready to go? I hope so.

This is the election of a lifetime. Because more than any one candidate or policy, what’s at stake is the American dream. That dream—the ability to imagine a better way for ourselves and our families and then reach for it—is central to who we are and what we stand for as a nation. Whether that dream endures for another generation depends on you and me. It depends on who leads us, too.

In Massachusetts, we know Mitt Romney. By the time he left office, Massachusetts was 47th in the nation in job creation—during better economic times—and household income in our state was declining. He cut education deeper than anywhere else in America. Roads and bridges were crumbling. Business taxes were up, and business confidence was down. Our clean energy potential was stalled. And we had a structural budget deficit. Mitt Romney talks a lot about all the things he’s fixed. I can tell you that Massachusetts wasn’t one of them. He’s a fine fellow and a great salesman, but as governor he was more interested in having the job than doing it.

When I came to office, we set out on a different course: investing in ourselves and our future. And today Massachusetts leads the nation in economic competitiveness, student achievement, health care coverage, life sciences and biotech, energy efficiency and veterans’ services. Today, with the help of the Obama administration, we are rebuilding our roads and bridges and expanding broadband access. Today we’re out of the deficit hole Mr. Romney left, and we’ve achieved the highest bond rating in our history. Today—with labor at the table—we’ve made the reforms in our pension and benefits systems, our schools, our transportation system and more that Mr. Romney only talked about. And today in Massachusetts, you can also marry whomever you love. We have much more still to do. But we are on a better track because we placed our faith not in trickle-down fantasies and divisive rhetoric but in our values and common sense.

The same choice faces the nation today. All that today’s Republicans are saying is that if we just shrink government, cut taxes, crush unions and wait, all will be well. Never mind that those are the very policies that got us into recession to begin with! Never mind that not one of the governors who preached that gospel in Tampa last week has the results to show for it. But we Democrats owe America more than a strong argument for what we are against. We need to be just as strong about what we are for.

The question is: What do we believe? We believe in an economy that grows opportunity out to the middle class and the marginalized, not just up to the well connected. We believe that freedom means keeping government out of our most private affairs, including out of a woman’s decision whether to keep an unwanted pregnancy and everybody’s decision about whom to marry. We believe that we owe the next generation a better country than we found and that every American has a stake in that. We believe that in times like these we should turn to each other, not on each other. We believe that government has a role to play, not in solving every problem in everybody’s life but in helping people help themselves to the American dream. That’s what Democrats believe.

If we want to win elections in November and keep our country moving forward, if we want to earn the privilege to lead, it’s time for Democrats to stiffen our backbone and stand up for what we believe. Quit waiting for pundits or polls or super PACs to tell us who the next president or senator or congressman is going to be. We’re Americans.

We shape our own future. Let’s start by standing up for President Barack Obama.

This is the president who delivered the security of affordable health care to every single American after 90 years of trying. This is the president who brought Osama bin Laden to justice, who ended the war in Iraq and is ending the war in Afghanistan. This is the president who ended “don’t ask, don’t tell” so that love of country, not love of another, determines fitness for military service. Who made equal pay for equal work the law of the land. This is the president who saved the American auto industry from extinction, the American financial industry from self-destruction, and the American economy from depression. Who added over 4.5 million private sector jobs in the last two-plus years, more jobs than George W. Bush added in eight.

The list of accomplishments is long, impressive and barely told—even more so when you consider that congressional Republicans have made obstruction itself the centerpiece of their governing strategy. With a record and a vision like that, I will not stand by and let him be bullied out of office—and neither should you, and neither should you and neither should you.

What’s at stake is real. The Orchard Gardens Elementary School in Boston was in trouble. Its record was poor, its spirit was broken, and its reputation was a wreck. No matter how bad things were in other urban schools in the city, people would say, “At least we’re not Orchard Gardens.” Today, thanks to a host of new tools, many enacted with the help of the Obama administration, Orchard Gardens is turning itself around. Teaching standards and accountabilities are higher. The school day is longer and filled with experiential learning, art, exercise and music.

The head of pediatric psychology from a local hospital comes to consult with faculty and parents on the toughest personal situations in students’ home lives. Attendance is up, thanks to a mentoring initiative. In less than a year, Orchard Gardens went from one of the worst schools in the district to one of the best in the state. The whole school community is engaged and proud.

So am I. At the end of my visit a year and a half ago, the first grade—led by a veteran teacher—gathered to recite Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech. When I started to applaud, the teacher said, “not yet.” Then she began to ask those six- and seven-year-olds questions: “What does ‘creed’ mean?” “What does ‘nullification’ mean?” “Where is Stone Mountain?” And as the hands shot up, I realized that she had taught the children not just to memorize that speech but to understand it.

Today’s Republicans and their nominee for president tell us that those first-graders are on their own—on their own to deal with their poverty; with ill-prepared young parents, maybe who speak English as a second language; with an underfunded school; with neighborhood crime and blight; with no access to nutritious food and no place for their mom to cash a paycheck; with a job market that needs skills they don’t have; with no way to pay for college.

But those Orchard Gardens kids should not be left on their own. Those children are America’s children, too, yours and mine. And among them are the future scientists, entrepreneurs, teachers, artists, engineers, laborers and civic leaders we desperately need. For this country to rise, they must rise—and they and their cause must have a champion in the White House.

That champion is Barack Obama. That cause is the American dream. Let’s fight for that. Let’s canvass and phone bank and get out the vote for that. Let’s go tell everyone we meet that, when the American dream is at stake, you want Barack Obama in charge.

Magnificently done. Somehow, what was a strong night of speeches (more to be shared later) was all a lead-up to the best address yet- that of FLOTUS Michelle Obama. Goodness knows how the rest of the week or the President himself will top this!

“Over the past few years as First Lady, I have had the extraordinary privilege of traveling all across this country.
And everywhere I’ve gone, in the people I’ve met, and the stories I’ve heard, I have seen the very best of the American spirit.

I have seen it in the incredible kindness and warmth that people have shown me and my family, especially our girls.

I’ve seen it in teachers in a near-bankrupt school district who vowed to keep teaching without pay.

I’ve seen it in people who become heroes at a moment’s notice, diving into harm’s way to save others…flying across the country to put out a fire…driving for hours to bail out a flooded town.

And I’ve seen it in our men and women in uniform and our proud military families…in wounded warriors who tell me they’re not just going to walk again, they’re going to run, and they’re going to run marathons…in the young man blinded by a bomb in Afghanistan who said, simply, “…I’d give my eyes 100 times again to have the chance to do what I have done and what I can still do.”

Every day, the people I meet inspire me…every day, they make me proud…every day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth.

Serving as your First Lady is an honor and a privilege…but back when we first came together four years ago, I still had some concerns about this journey we’d begun.

While I believed deeply in my husband’s vision for this country…and I was certain he would make an extraordinary President…like any mother, I was worried about what it would mean for our girls if he got that chance.

How would we keep them grounded under the glare of the national spotlight?

How would they feel being uprooted from their school, their friends, and the only home they’d ever known?

Our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys…Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at grandma’s house…and a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an exhausted mom, I couldn’t stay awake for both.

And the truth is, I loved the life we had built for our girls…I deeply loved the man I had built that life with…and I didn’t want that to change if he became President.

I loved Barack just the way he was.

You see, even though back then Barack was a Senator and a presidential candidate…to me, he was still the guy who’d picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger side door…he was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he’d found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of decent shoes was half a size too small.

But when Barack started telling me about his family – that’s when I knew I had found a kindred spirit, someone whose values and upbringing were so much like mine.

You see, Barack and I were both raised by families who didn’t have much in the way of money or material possessions but who had given us something far more valuable – their unconditional love, their unflinching sacrifice, and the chance to go places they had never imagined for themselves.

My father was a pump operator at the city water plant, and he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when my brother and I were young.

And even as a kid, I knew there were plenty of days when he was in pain…I knew there were plenty of mornings when it was a struggle for him to simply get out of bed.

But every morning, I watched my father wake up with a smile, grab his walker, prop himself up against the bathroom sink, and slowly shave and button his uniform.

And when he returned home after a long day’s work, my brother and I would stand at the top of the stairs to our little apartment, patiently waiting to greet him…watching as he reached down to lift one leg, and then the other, to slowly climb his way into our arms.

But despite these challenges, my dad hardly ever missed a day of work…he and my mom were determined to give me and my brother the kind of education they could only dream of.

And when my brother and I finally made it to college, nearly all of our tuition came from student loans and grants.

But my dad still had to pay a tiny portion of that tuition himself.

And every semester, he was determined to pay that bill right on time, even taking out loans when he fell short.

He was so proud to be sending his kids to college…and he made sure we never missed a registration deadline because his check was late.

You see, for my dad, that’s what it meant to be a man.

Like so many of us, that was the measure of his success in life – being able to earn a decent living that allowed him to support his family.

And as I got to know Barack, I realized that even though he’d grown up all the way across the country, he’d been brought up just like me.

Barack was raised by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills, and by grandparents who stepped in when she needed help.

Barack’s grandmother started out as a secretary at a community bank…and she moved quickly up the ranks…but like so many women, she hit a glass ceiling.

And for years, men no more qualified than she was – men she had actually trained – were promoted up the ladder ahead of her, earning more and more money while Barack’s family continued to scrape by.

But day after day, she kept on waking up at dawn to catch the bus…arriving at work before anyone else…giving her best without complaint or regret.

And she would often tell Barack, “So long as you kids do well, Bar, that’s all that really matters.”

Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much.

They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did…in fact, they admired it.

They simply believed in that fundamental American promise that, even if you don’t start out with much, if you work hard and do what you’re supposed to do, then you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids.

That’s how they raised us…that’s what we learned from their example.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make…that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters…that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules…and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean…and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.

Those are the values Barack and I – and so many of you – are trying to pass on to our own children.

That’s who we are.

And standing before you four years ago, I knew that I didn’t want any of that to change if Barack became President.

Well, today, after so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagined, I have seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are – it reveals who you are.

You see, I’ve gotten to see up close and personal what being president really looks like.

And I’ve seen how the issues that come across a President’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer…the judgment calls where the stakes are so high, and there is no margin for error.

And as President, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people.

But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as President, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.

So when it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my dad and like his grandmother.

He’s thinking about the pride that comes from a hard day’s work.

That’s why he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help women get equal pay for equal work.

That’s why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet.

That’s how he brought our economy from the brink of collapse to creating jobs again – jobs you can raise a family on, good jobs right here in the United States of America.

When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president.

He didn’t care whether it was the easy thing to do politically – that’s not how he was raised – he cared that it was the right thing to do.

He did it because he believes that here in America, our grandparents should be able to afford their medicine…our kids should be able to see a doctor when they’re sick…and no one in this country should ever go broke because of an accident or illness.

And he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care…that’s what my husband stands for.

When it comes to giving our kids the education they deserve, Barack knows that like me and like so many of you, he never could’ve attended college without financial aid.

And believe it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage.

We were so young, so in love, and so in debt.

That’s why Barack has fought so hard to increase student aid and keep interest rates down, because he wants every young person to fulfill their promise and be able to attend college without a mountain of debt.

So in the end, for Barack, these issues aren’t political – they’re personal.

Because Barack knows what it means when a family struggles.

He knows what it means to want something more for your kids and grandkids.

Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it…and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we’re from, or what we look like, or who we love.

And he believes that when you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity…you do not slam it shut behind you…you reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.

So when people ask me whether being in the White House has changed my husband, I can honestly say that when it comes to his character, and his convictions, and his heart, Barack Obama is still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago.

He’s the same man who started his career by turning down high paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work…because for Barack, success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.

He’s the same man who, when our girls were first born, would anxiously check their cribs every few minutes to ensure they were still breathing, proudly showing them off to everyone we knew.

That’s the man who sits down with me and our girls for dinner nearly every night, patiently answering their questions about issues in the news, and strategizing about middle school friendships.

That’s the man I see in those quiet moments late at night, hunched over his desk, poring over the letters people have sent him.

The letter from the father struggling to pay his bills…from the woman dying of cancer whose insurance company won’t cover her care…from the young person with so much promise but so few opportunities.

I see the concern in his eyes…and I hear the determination in his voice as he tells me, “You won’t believe what these folks are going through, Michelle…it’s not right. We’ve got to keep working to fix this. We’ve got so much more to do.”

I see how those stories – our collection of struggles and hopes and dreams – I see how that’s what drives Barack Obama every single day.

And I didn’t think it was possible, but today, I love my husband even more than I did four years ago…even more than I did 23 years ago, when we first met.

I love that he’s never forgotten how he started.

I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard.

I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as “us” and “them” – he doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the above…he knows that we all love our country…and he’s always ready to listen to good ideas…he’s always looking for the very best in everyone he meets.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise.

Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward…with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

And he reminds me that we are playing a long game here…and that change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once.

But eventually we get there, we always do.

We get there because of folks like my Dad…folks like Barack’s grandmother…men and women who said to themselves, “I may not have a chance to fulfill my dreams, but maybe my children will…maybe my grandchildren will.”

So many of us stand here tonight because of their sacrifice, and longing, and steadfast love…because time and again, they swallowed their fears and doubts and did what was hard.

So today, when the challenges we face start to seem overwhelming – or even impossible – let us never forget that doing the impossible is the history of this nation…it’s who we are as Americans…it’s how this country was built.

And if our parents and grandparents could toil and struggle for us…if they could raise beams of steel to the sky, send a man to the moon, and connect the world with the touch of a button…then surely we can keep on sacrificing and building for our own kids and grandkids.

And if so many brave men and women could wear our country’s uniform and sacrifice their lives for our most fundamental rights…then surely we can do our part as citizens of this great democracy to exercise those rights…surely, we can get to the polls and make our voices heard on Election Day.

If farmers and blacksmiths could win independence from an empire…if immigrants could leave behind everything they knew for a better life on our shores…if women could be dragged to jail for seeking the vote…if a generation could defeat a depression, and define greatness for all time…if a young preacher could lift us to the mountaintop with his righteous dream…and if proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love…then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

Because in the end, more than anything else, that is the story of this country – the story of unwavering hope grounded in unyielding struggle.

That is what has made my story, and Barack’s story, and so many other American stories possible.

And I say all of this tonight not just as First Lady…and not just as a wife.

You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still “mom-in-chief.”

My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.

But today, I have none of those worries from four years ago about whether Barack and I were doing what’s best for our girls.

Because today, I know from experience that if I truly want to leave a better world for my daughters, and all our sons and daughters…if we want to give all our children a foundation for their dreams and opportunities worthy of their promise…if we want to give them that sense of limitless possibility – that belief that here in America, there is always something better out there if you’re willing to work for it…then we must work like never before…and we must once again come together and stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward…my husband, our President, President Barack Obama.

“Good evening, I’m Lilly Ledbetter and I’m here tonight to say: What a difference four years make!

Some of you may know my story: How for nineteen years, I worked as a manager for a tire plant in Alabama. And some of you may have lived a similar story: After nearly two decades of hard, proud work, I found out that I was making significantly less money than the men who were doing the same work as me. I went home, talked to my husband, and we decided to fight.

We decided to fight for our family and to fight for your family too. We sought justice because equal pay for equal work is an American value. That fight took me ten years. It took me all the way to the Supreme Court. And, in a 5–4 decision, they stood on the side of those who shortchanged my pay, my overtime, and my retirement just because I am a woman.

The Supreme Court told me that I should have filed a complaint within six months of the company’s first decision to pay me less even though I didn’t know about it for nearly two decades. And if we hadn’t elected President Barack Obama, the Supreme Court’s wrongheaded interpretation would have been the law of the land.

And that would have been the end of the story. But with President Obama on our side, even though I lost before the Supreme Court, we won. The first bill that President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. I think it says something about his priorities that the first bill he put his name on has my name on it too.

As he said that day with me by his side, “Making our economy work means making sure it works for everyone.”

The president signed the bill for his grandmother, whose dreams hit the glass ceiling, And for his daughters, so that theirs never will. Because of his leadership, women who faced pay discrimination like I did will now get their day in court.

That was the first step but it can’t be the last. Because women still earn just 77 cents for every dollar men make. Those pennies add up to real money. It’s real money for the little things like being able to take your kids to the movies and for the big things like sending them to college. It’s paying your rent this month and paying the mortgage in the future. It’s having savings for the bill you didn’t expect and savings for the dignified retirement you’ve earned.

Maybe 23 cents doesn’t sound like a lot to someone with a Swiss bank account, Cayman Island Investments and an IRA worth tens of millions of dollars. But Governor Romney, when we lose 23 cents every hour, every day, every paycheck, every job, over our entire lives, what we lose can’t just be measured in dollars.

Three years ago, the house passed the paycheck Fairness Act to level the playing field for America’s women. Senate Republicans blocked it. Mitt Romney won’t even say if he supports it. President Obama does. In the end, I didn’t get a dime of the money I was shortchanged.

But this fight became bigger than Lilly Ledbetter. Today, it’s about my daughter. It’s about my granddaughter. It’s about women and men. It’s about families. It’s about equality and justice.

This cause, which bears my name, is bigger than me. It’s as big as all of you. This fight, which began as my own, is now our fight—a fight for the fundamental American values that make our country great. And with President Barack Obama, we’re going to win. Thank you very much. God bless America.”

Powerful stuff indeed, on so many levels. Be it as remembering a great Democrat and the work that he did during the long course of his career in the Senate, highlights of his tremendous 1994 take-down of now GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, or his lifework’s goal, “the cause of his life”, of healthcare coverage for all Americans accomplished in the first term of the Obama administration.

An extraordinary moment from last night– one of many. This is a convention where the Democratic party is fully engaged and taking the fight forward hard to the American people and the corporate interests led by Mitt Romney.

“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

“Greetings from Maryland, home to the number-one public schools in America for four years in a row!

Since the first days of the American Revolution, Maryland has been called the “Old Line State” because of this true story of a group of soldiers called the Maryland Line: immigrants and native born, black and white, volunteers all. It is August 27th, 1776—two months since our Declaration of Independence. Outnumbered and surrounded, Washington’s army is about to be crushed forever at Brooklyn Heights. The British are closing in.

With America’s future hanging in the balance, word is passed up and down the Maryland Line: “Fix bayonets, we’re moving forward.” And they do. Into the breach. They hold off the British just long enough for Washington’s army to escape and fight another day. Today there is a plaque by the mass graves of those citizen soldiers. It reads, “In honor of the Maryland 400, who on this battlefield saved the American army.”

In times of adversity—for the country we love—Maryland always chooses to move forward. Progress is a choice. Job creation is a choice. Whether we move forward or back: this too is a choice. That is what this election is all about!
Democratic governors, with the support of our president, are leading their states forward—putting job creation first, balancing budgets, protecting priorities, making the tough decisions, right now, to create jobs and expand opportunity. Together with President Obama, we are moving America forward, not back.

With 29 months in a row of private sector job growth, President Obama is moving America forward, not back! By making college more affordable for millions of middle-class families, President Obama is moving America forward, not back! By securing the guarantee of Medicare for our seniors, President Obama is moving America forward, not back! By putting forward a concrete plan to cut waste, ask those at the top to pay a little more, and reduce our deficit, President Obama is moving America forward, not back! And by adding American manufacturing jobs for the first time since the late 1990s, President Obama is moving America forward, not back!

Facts are facts: No president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Great Depression inherited a worse economy, bigger job losses or deeper problems from his predecessor. But President Obama is moving America forward, not back.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan now say they want to take America back. And so we ask: Back to what? Back to the failed policies that drove us into a deep recession? Back to the days of record job losses? Back to the days when insurance companies called being a woman a “pre-existing condition”?

No, thank you. I don’t want to go back. Do you? Instead of a balanced, achievable plan to create jobs and reduce the deficit, Mitt Romney says he will cut taxes for millionaires and raise them for the middle class.

Instead of improving public safety and public education like President Obama, Mitt Romney says we need less police officers, firefighters and teachers. Instead of safeguarding our seniors, Romney and Ryan would end the guarantee of Medicare and replace it with a voucher in order to give bigger tax breaks to billionaires. Instead of investing in America, they hide their money in Swiss bank accounts and ship our jobs to China!

Swiss bank accounts never built an American bridge. Swiss bank accounts don’t put cops on the beat or teachers in our classrooms. Swiss bank accounts never created American jobs!

We are Americans. We must act like Americans. We must move forward, not back. My parents, Tom and Barbara O’Malley, like so many of yours, were part of that great generation that won the Second World War. Dad flew 33 missions over Japan in a B-24 Liberator. He was able to go to college only because of the GI Bill.

Our parents taught us to love God, love our family and love our country. Their own grandparents were immigrants. Their first language may not have been English, but the hopes and dreams they had for their children were purely American.
You see, there is a powerful truth at the heart of the American dream: The stronger we make our country, the more she gives back to us, to our children and grandchildren. Our parents and grandparents understood this truth deeply. They believed—as we do—that to create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments: educating, innovating and rebuilding for our children’s future. Building an economy to last, from the middle class up, not from the billionaires down.

Yes, we live in changing times. The question is: What type of change will we make of it? As we search for common ground and the way forward together, let’s ask one another—let’s ask the leaders in the Republican party—without any anger, meanness or fear: How much less, do you really think, would be good for our country? How much less education would be good for our children? How many hungry American kids can we no longer afford to feed? Governor Romney: How many fewer college degrees would make us more competitive as a nation?

The future we seek is not a future of less opportunity; it is a future of more opportunity for all Americans.
See the faces of your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. They did not cross an ocean, settle a continent, do hard, backbreaking work so their children and grandchildren could live in a country of less. They came here because the United States of America is the greatest job-generating, opportunity-expanding country ever created by a free people in the history of civilization! And she still is.

Let us not be the first generation of Americans to give our children a country of less! Let us return to the urgent work of creating more jobs, more security and more opportunity for our people. Together, let’s move forward, not back—by re-electing Barack Obama president of the United States!”